1. PETER BROADFIELD
28 Frederick Street ♦ Ashton-under-Lyne ♦ Lancashire ♦ OL6 6RY
Mobile: 07963 59 44 18 ♦ pbroadfield@gmail.com
Senior Oracle DBA/UNIX shell programmer
An Oracle DBA & automation specialist with excellent communication skills and an
effective problem solver that hits the ground running
Summary
A highly experienced ORACLE DBA who has a depth of knowledge in both Oracle and UNIX that complement each
other to solve problems. With a keen interest in other development languages (Python/Swift) it shows both a thirst
for knowledge as well as a determination to stay current (Oracle 12c experience). Shows a good understanding of
‘Revision Control’ and is a strict adherer to and instigator of standards within organisations. A good mentor with
the knowledge, patience and understanding required to get someone with an interest in databases to the level of
competency that is valuable to any company. Has spent much time as the backup specialist in many previous roles.
Good understanding of OEM and how it can be used within a company. Spent many years as a production DBA and
evolved to develop many tools to solve problems and assist the current production DBAs to carry out their daily
tasks quicker and easier.
Core Competances
Oracle Database Administration up to version 12c (Single and Multitenant) ♦ DR
♦ Automating Processes Using UNIX, SQL, PL/SQL and Python 2.7 & 3
♦ RAC, Dataguard ♦ RMAN, Datapump, SQL*Plus
♦ Tuning with AWR | ASH SQL Tracr | Statspack | TKprof
♦ Problem Solving ♦ Shell Scripting (KSH and BASH) ♦ SWIFT2&3
Business Sectors/Locations
Telecommunications (Knowsley and Bristol), OIL exploration (Aberdeen, Stavanger & Oslo (Norway)), Environment
(Warrington, Brighton), Health/Medical (Stoke, Birmingham, Leeds (Orthopaedic Devices)), Building Industry
(Milton Keynes), Electrical Engineering (Manchester), Insurance (Witham, London, Liverpool), General
Merchandising (Crawley)
Experience
VIRGIN MEDIA, KNOWSLEY • JANUARY 2007 – PRESENT (NEARLY 10 YEARS)
UK provider of broadband, cable TV, landline and mobile phone services. It currently serves just under 5 million
cable customers; employs around 12,500 people across numerous sites around the country. The annual report for
2010 indicated revenue of £3,875.8 million.
Database Administrator
Initially a Database Administrator with responsibilities to carry out normal database administration tasks. Prior to
this appointment, I was freelance working for VM for 8 years in a consultancy role.
⧫ Database backup system
Before the days of OEM we had to carry out database backups manually.
When you are dealing with hundreds of databases, there comes a point when the backups need to be
automated.
I created a system that would backup databases according to schedules and options that could be
configured using Configuration Files.
This was our standard method of backing up Oracle databases for many years and is ostensibly still being
used today although modified for newer versions of Oracle and newer (virtual) Tape systems.

2. ⧫ Initiator and Chairman of the VM Database Standards Committee.
Due to us having many (hundreds) Oracle databases and all being installed by different DBAs with their
own thoughts and ideas on where things should go and what should be installed, we ended up with so
many databases that were different from each other that it was difficult to know where anything was.
I created the Database Standards Committee and we all decided the best practices for our team whenever
Oracle was installed or databases were built. This led to us having a coherent set of standards moving
forward that allowed us to easily find where Oracle binaries were installed and disks were mounted. We
had standard filesystems for datafiles, Redo Logs (3 groups with 2 members on distinct drives), control
files (3 on distinct drives), exports, Flashback (if required), Temp Tablespaces and Undo Tablespaces.
⧫ Oracle installation disk repository.
Originally, we used to get Oracle Installation disks shipped on CDs. This was for Solaris, AIX, Windows,
HP-UX and Linux, for all relevant versions and patches too. Keeping track of these CDs spread over 3
distinct sites was a problem. I set up, in conjunction with our UNIX team, the filesystem to allow us to
copy these CDs to a network drive so that we could all use them from all systems.
Also, later, we would get our Installation Disks via the internet, directly from Oracle but we would still store
them centrally to save every DBA from downloading their own.
⧫ Designer and author of the Oracle Standard Environment.
The ‘OSE’ as we call it was developed solely by me for the use of all DBAs in VM.
The problem was that every DBA had their own ideas on what the Oracle account should use for the
backspace key, their own useful scripts (and where to keep them), their own methods of conditioning the
account for connection to any of the databases on any of the servers.
This OSE standardised the Oracle account on every database server. We had a single .profile that was
identical. We had a single script ‘set_sid’ that was identical. We had a standard set of scripts that were
identical on all servers and all database versions (this took some thinking about).
The scripts were written to ensure they ran the same on all of our operating systems (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX
and Linux) and for the shells that we used (Korn and Bash).
This meant that whenever you logged into a machine, the backspace worked, the commands like ‘sids’ (list
database instances installed on this server, showing version, status etc), ‘sid’ (point the environment at an
instance), sql (move to a specific directory (same on every server) and start-up a SQL*Plus session). Once
in SQL*Plus, there were a set of standard SQL scripts that were tailored to the version of the database you
were connected to.
All DB server and DB names were held in a central file. Python scripts were developed to easily make
enquiries on this file. E.g. “dblookup testdb” would list any database name or DB server name that
contained the phrase “testdb” irrespective of case. Another Python script was developed to analyse this file
to produce a count of DB servers and distinct databases.
There was much more to OSE than this brief explanation can describe but it was a great time-saver every
time you had to connect to a database.
⧫ Creator of the Virginmedia Knowsley Raspberry Jam (Raspberry Pi meetings).
This was funded by the Executive Director for IT in Knowsley to supply facilities and equipment to start
and run a monthly meeting (Saturday) for staff to bring their family and friends. It was a place where they
could learn about the fun (and educational) things that can be achieved with a cheap (£30) UNIX
computer. Lunch was provided by the company in our company restaurant.
It was well attended and the best thing for me was that children of our staff were mixing whilst learning.
Priceless.
I was nominated and awarded the “Innovator of the Month” award for this which is presented each month
to a single employee who comes up with something innovative that helps the company or staff.
This covers nearly 10 years staff at VM. Available in other formats from
www.pbcv.wikidot.com